Even though he shot 29.7% from distance (.7-for-2.3 shots per game) as a rookie, George shot confidently and effortlessly (despite the rotation defection) off the bounce and in catch-and-shoot situations in the 20 minutes of action per night he played.
This is how Paul George used to hold the basketball.
“The way I was catching the ball and I was holding the ball is totally different from how I’m doing it now,” said George, who now holds the ball with his middle finger in the center of the ball. “It was just, I think it was just coming off my hand wrong, you know? But now it’s coming off the center. The coaching staff brought it to my attention my rookie year. Going into the summer I really worked on my rotation being a lot smoother.”
George knew that to get to the point where he could be relied upon to be a primary scoring option – I don’t know, say, if Danny Granger were out for a whole season, or something – that he’d have to become a much, much more reliable shooter.
The fact that he came to such a realization as a rookie is a testament to his humble nature and student-of-the-game mentality. He’s striving to reach his potential, and he recognized that fixing his jumper was high on his list of priorities to work on.
It’s refreshing, and it’s certainly been timely for the Indiana Pacers this season, who’ve relied on George’s multifaceted scoring abilities more than many outsiders would’ve thought was reasonable heading into this season.
George only scored 19 points on 5-for-14 shooting from the field, but he converted 7-of-8 attempts at the foul line, including two trips he earned (one was Melo’s 4th foul, early in the third quarter) with his quick, off-the-bounce, shooting motion, and converted a few poised shots after catching near the elbow and operating in 1-on-1 situations.
George certainly wasn’t the only reason the Pacers notched the win yesterday, but it’s hard to watch this team and not think about where they’d be without their star swingman.
The Pacers’ excellent interior defense, anchored by center Roy Hibbert (Vogel: “All the analytics say he’s the toughest guy to score on at the rim, the proximity stats”) along with taking advantage of their size on the glass and in the paint offensively, played major factors in the outcome.
While the Pacers seemed to be clicking, the Knicks will have to figure out how to adjust to the Pacers style of play, especially at the offensive end.
The Pacers are going to continue to run the Knicks off the 3-point line, which they did a masterful job with in Game 1. Not shockingly, they’re also going to try to limit New York’s points in the paint.
“Limiting their strengths,” said Vogel, following the win. “We limited them to seven 3-pointers, but more importantly 19 attempts, below their averages in both. Limiting them in the paint, as well. 12 points in the paint in that first quarter, only 20 the rest of the way. I thought Roy Hibbert was sensational at the rim. The rest of our guards came back to rebound. We limited them to 6 offensive rebounds on 46 misses. Just a strong defensive effort.”
The best example of how Indiana controlled the boards came by way of third-year power-guard Lance Stephenson, who corralled 13 rebounds (his third straight postseason double-digit rebounding game) and scored 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting.
“We keep talking to him about not leaking out [from defense to offense],” explained Vogel. “He’s a weapon in transition, and that’s good, but when he comes back and rebounds we’re pretty good, too. We’re trying to get him to come back and defensive rebound more. The last two games he had double-digit rebounds in Atlanta and today he had 13 rebounds. It was just a great effort.”
The Knicks have their work cut out for them before Game 2, as they’ve got to figure out how to fit Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and Tyson Chandler together to operate efficiently at the offensive end when they’re in the lineup together, as New York realizes it will likely have to tinker with playing bigger for longer stretches to have success this round.
“We’ve got to put some sets in come tomorrow that are gonna help those two when they’re out on the floor together, because we haven’t played a lot of minutes together with those two bigs like that this season,” explained Woodson.
“We’ve got to figure that out.”
More than anything for New York, though, Woodson wants – needs – to see better effort out of his team.
“We’ve gotta get better effort across the board for us to get out of this series,” said Woodson. “I thought we played well in spurts, but when there are loose balls and things of that nature, and rotations we were missing tonight, those are some things that we can clean up as a group and get better come Tuesday.”
As they prepare for Game 2, the Knicks will be doing the adjusting while the Pacers try to make minor tweaks to further enhance their advantages.
“It’s to the point where we’ve just got to match-up,” explained George regarding the Pacers and Knicks lineup contrasts. “There are some cross-matches on our behalf, but it goes both ways. We need to match up, find where their shooters are and everybody just be down in help on the contain.”
Jeremy Bauman is an aspiring shooting coach and scout who writes columns and blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.